Interlocking carpet or floor-covering.



No. 713,420. Patented Nov. 1|, I902.

A. L. FLOOD.

INTERLOGKING CARPET 0R FLOUR COVERING.

(Application filed Mar. 3, 1902.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

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No. 7I3,420. Patented Nov. ll, I902.

1 A. L. FLOOD. INTERLOCKING CARPET OR FLOOR COVERING.

(Application filed Mar. 8, 1902.)

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UNiTen STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED L. FLOOD, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WILLIAM L. WEBER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

lNTERLOCKlNG CARPET OR FLOOR-COVERING.

SFECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 713,420, dated November 11, 1902.

Application filed March 3, 1902. Serial No. 96,391. (No model.)

To all whont it ntcty concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED L. FLOOD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Interlocking Carpets or Floor-Coverings, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to interlocking carpets or strips of floor-covering, and has for its object to provide convenient means for covering floors with interlocking materials, the same to be prepared in strips or in strips in combination with tile-sections and adapted to be used either from the roll or in patterns built up to fit by surfaces or areas of prepared plans and dimensions.

My invention is illustrated in a sense diagrammatic in the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a plan view of a floor-covering composed of strips taken from the roll. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a floor with the central areas between doors covered with tile-sections of different patterns and the corner-section of the room covered with strips which interlock together and also interlock with the tiles. Fig. 3 is a plan view of a floor-covering prepared for an irregular floor-space and consisting of a central pattern portion of tile, if desired with border-sections, shaped to fit the room and all the parts interlocking. Fig. 4: is a cross-section showing the interlocking strip carried up to form the base-board or return at the edge of a room.

Like parts are indicated by the same letters in all the figures.

A A are sections of strips of interlocking material, and they may be made of any desired width from a few inches to a few feet and of any desired length. They may have interlocks (indicated at B B) on both sides and either or both ends, as may be desired. (3 O are strips of like material having the interlock on but one edge or side. In Fig. 1 I have shown these strips arranged so as to cover a floor-section, leaving the outer margin free from the interlocks. It would in such case come up against the base-board and can benailed or secured, if desired.

D D are narrow border-strips, which may be used across the ends or along the sides of the larger or central strips or mass of tiling. These strip borders may be mitered andinterlooked, as indicated at E, the miter-lock being out as the material is laid or the material being furnished in rolls with mitered ends and interlocks. These border-strips may be finished as shown at the left in Fig. 2, the end of one strip abutting against the side of the other and the two interlocking, as indicated at F. The border-strips thus interlock with the body-strips, and the body-strips, as indicated, interlock with the sections of tile G G. These sections of tile may be of any kind of tile or they may not be true tile. They may be composed of material cut and shaped and with the tile impressed simply as an ornamental design. I

J J are a series of border-strips to make pattern-work, and they may be of any desired color, size, or shape. As indicated at K, they are carried around an angle, so as to conform to the outline of the room, or, in the case illustrated, the outline of a palace-car.

L is the central body of tile or ornamental work.

M is a return-strip interlocked at N to the strip A and at its upper end coming under the molding O. A plan view of this strip would show somewhat like the strips D D in Fig. 2, for the upper edge of the strip M is covered by the molding.

P indicates strips which may be attached to the bottom of the sections.

Strips or tiles or a continuous strip covering the whole bottom of a given arrangement of parts can be used to hold the several sections together when they have been arranged on the work-floor to suit or fit a given area. I have used the term strips to indicate these larger sections; but I use this term in a very general sense to mean large and particularly long sections of the covering material.

There are various other Ways in which my invention may be reduced to practice, and I have only endeavored in the foregoing description and illustrations to show some of the most important uses to which it can be put and some of the most desirable arrangements of the several parts which combine together to contain my improvement in actual use.

The interlocking strips can be of any size, shape, or length and with the interlocks on one or both sides or ends, as may be required. The ends may also be mitered or shaped, and the strips thus may be carried off on angles or about curves, as suggested. The strips may be used with or without tiles, and either tiles or strips may be of any desired color or with any desired pattern thereon. Of course when the tiles and strips are used together the proportions of the several parts must be such that the interlocks associated with a row of tiles will correspond with similar interlocks on the strip.

The strips, with or without the tile sections or centers, may be arranged in the work-room to fit approximately the apartment or floorspace to be treated, and then the parts can be held togetheras, for example, by the back strips, which are shown at P in Fig. 4. Such finished carpet or covering can then be placed in the proper room and the exact final measurements be taken and a new border-strip be added, the same being cut or bent up at the corners, as the case may be, to make the complete carpet a tit for the particular floor in question. I do not wish, therefore, to be limited to the particular forms, arrangements, or combinations of these several parts.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows: The strips of interlocking material will be made and may be shipped and sold and used from the roll like ordinary carpeting, and thus a floor which is to all intents and purposes a tile-floor may be laid down without any difficulty and of any desired material, for my invention is applicable to any of the ordinary materials which possess sufficient strength and body to make the interlocking effective and by persons who are not particularly skilful in connection with such matters. Moreover, the return edge can in like manner be made with very little difliculty, because the last strip, either of the width as it comes from the factory or as cut by the person who lays the floor, can be bent up at the corner of the room and carried underneath a molding, so as form the baseboard. It is only necessary then to cement or close the spaces of the interlock, whereupon a floor capable of holding two or three inches of water without leaking is formed. The junctions at the corners can be made in any desired manner, according to the conditions of each case. WVhen a given section of flooring has been laid down from the roll, it is cut ofi theright length, like carpeting, and another section taken. When finally the roll is exhausted, if its end is made with interlocking devices the next roll can be interlocked at ends and sides and be laid down in like manner, and thus the work may be continued to the end. If the end of the roll is not provided with the interlocking devices, it will have to be cut with a hand tool or die provided for that purpose. If, as in the cases illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, a tile-section floor is desired, it is only necessary to lay down these tile-sections in the usual manner and form without mutilating the tiles, thus leaving projecting on the edges or margins of such tile-section a series of interlocking devices, which will be found to register with the like interlocking devices of the margins and edges of the strips. Thus the strips may then be laid alongside of the tiling and a complete floor may be made. Of course the tiling may be inside or outside of the strips, as the case may be. As previously suggested, these sheets may be made of any desired material. They might, of course, be made of rigid or hard material; but my preference is to make them of yielding material which will roll. The tiles and strips, if used together, need not, of course, be of the same material. It is only necessary that their interlocking parts should be made to fit each other.

I claim- 1. A floor-covering comprising a series of long strips with marginal interlocking devices adapted to prevent them from separating laterally and edge strips which are turned up along the edges of the room.

2. A floor-covering comprising a series of strips-with marginal interlocking devices and sections of tiling with interlocking devices adapted to engage those of the strips, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

3. A floor-covering comprising a body of interlocking tile with marginal interlocking devices, and a series of strips with marginal interlocking devices engaging the interlocking devices of the adjacent tiles, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

4. A floor-covering comprisinga body of interlocking tile with marginal interlocking devices, and a series of strips with marginal interlocking devices engaging the interlocking devices of the adjacent tiles,and border-strips with interlocking devices to engage those of the larger strips, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

5. A floor-covering comprising a body of interlocking tile with marginal interlocking devices, and a series of strips with marginal interlocking devices engaging the interlocking devices of the adjacent tiles,and border-strips with interlocking devices to engage those of the larger strips, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally and said borders turned up at the edges of the room.

6. A floor-covering comprising a body of strips having marginal interlocking devices, the whole held permanently together and ot' a pattern to approximately fit the room, with borderstrips having interlocking devices adapted to fill the spaces between the body portion and the Walls, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

7. A floor-covering comprising a central body of tile with interlocking edges, a series of strips thereabout with marginal interlocking devices adapted to engage each other and the central tile-body, means for holding all of these parts together and a removable borderstrip to engage the interlocking devices and fill the room, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

8. A floor comprising interlocking tile-sections and strips suitably associated together and shaped so as to form a body of covering material approximately the size and shape of the floor to be covered with exterior interlocking devices and with interlocking borderstrips adapted to complete the floor-covering for the entire floor, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

9. A floor comprising interlocking tile-seetions and strips suitably associated together and shaped so as to form a body of covering material approximately the size and shape of the floor to be covered with exterior interlocking devices, and means for holding these several parts together in a relatively permanent manner before they are laid on the floor, with interlocking border-strips adapted to complete the floor-covering for the entire floor and to be laid in position when the principal body of the covering has been placed in its approximately predetermined position on the floor, such interlocks adapted to prevent the parts from separating laterally.

10. As a new article of manufacture for floor-covering, strips of covering material of great length relative to their Width, said strips provided with marginal interlocking recesses and projections adapted to prevent said strips from separating laterally one strip from the other.

ALFRED L. FLOOD.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM L. WEBER, HOMER L. KRAFT. 

